Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Another nail

A newly disclosed document reveals that Vatican officials instructed the bishops of Ireland in 1997 that they must not adopt a policy of reporting priests suspected of child abuse to the police or civil authorities. The document appears to contradict Vatican claims that the hierarchy in Rome never determined the actions of local bishops in abuse cases, and that the church did not impede criminal investigations of accused child abusers ....

In 1997, an advisory committee of Irish bishops had drawn up a new policy that included “mandatory reporting” of suspected abusers to civil authorities. The letter, signed by the late Archbishop Luciano Storero, the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio — or chief representative — in Ireland warned the Irish bishops against implementing the reporting policy. t said that for both “moral and canonical” reasons, the bishops must handle all accusations through internal church channels. Bishops who disobeyed, the letter said, may face repercussions when their abuse cases were heard in Rome. “The results could be highly embarrassing and detrimental to those same Diocesan authorities,” the letter said .... Even now ... the Vatican has refrained from imposing rules for the church worldwide that would mandate reporting clergy accused of abuse to civil authorities ...